U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,225 discloses a signature inserter for a saddle gathering machine including a rotatable extractor drum for extracting a signature from a hopper and carrying it to a stop position on the periphery of the drum. A reciprocating dipper contacts the lower cut edge of the signature and moves the cut edge into a gripping position beside a transfer drum. A wiper vane rotatably mounted in the path adjacent the extractor and transfer drums wipes the lower edge of the signature onto the dipper then rotates away from the signature. Grippers associated with the transfer drum grip the lower edge of the signature and carry it away from the extractor drum toward an opener drum. The transfer drum and the opener drum cooperate to open the signature and deposit it on a saddle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,302 relates to a differential gripper system. An apparatus for removing paper products from a stack on a hopper comprises a rotatably mounted gripper drum which rotates about a central axis at a substantially constant angular velocity. A stationary cam is rigidly mounted adjacent the gripper drum. A gripper mechanism is mounted on the gripper drum and rotates with the drum. The gripper mechanism is provided for gripping a paper product, removing it from a stack and slaving it along the direction of rotation of the gripper drum. A linkage mechanism, which is also mounted on the gripper drum and which rotates with the drum, is provided for angularly displacing the gripper mechanism relative to the gripper drum, i.e., to accelerate and decelerate the gripper and to operatively link the gripper mechanism with the cam.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,559 discloses a sheet material handling apparatus and method using a skewed sheet stack and an alignment mechanism. An apparatus for handling sheet material articles includes a hopper which supports a stack of sheet material articles with front-edge portions of the articles being skewed at an acute angle to the axis of rotation of a feed drum. A separator is sequentially engageable with a corner portion of the sheet material articles to move the corner portion of an article away from a next succeeding sheet material article. The feed drum pulls a sheet material article from the hopper with the front edge portion of the sheet material article skewed at an acute angle to the axis of rotation of the feed drum. While a portion of the sheet material article is still in the hopper, the sheet material article moves from between the separator and the next sheet material article to the separator. A conveyor receives the sheet material article from the feed drum. A plurality of alignment rods engage a leading end portion of the sheet material article as it moves toward the conveyor and rotates the sheet material article into alignment with the conveyor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,118 discloses a pair of saddle conveyors. An extractor drum sequentially grips folded edge portions of signatures in hoppers and moves the signatures along an arcuate path. During rotation of the extractor drum, a first signature engages a first stop member and is transferred to a first saddle conveyor. The first stop member is then retracted and the next signature moves past the first stop member into engagement with a second stop member. The second signature is then transferred to a second saddle conveyor. A single stitcher assembly is provided to stitch signatures in first and second spaced apart streams of signatures being conveyed by the two saddle conveyors. In addition, a single trimmer assembly is provided to trim the signatures while maintaining the signatures in the first and second spaced apart streams of signatures.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,858 and EP 0,654,431 A1 disclose an apparatus for converting a sheet material feeder from on edge to bottom feed. An existing sheet material feeder has a feed tray which holds sheet material in an on-edge orientation in which side surfaces of the sheet material are generally vertical. An apparatus is provided to convert the sheet material feeder to one having a feed tray which holds sheet material in a lying-down orientation in which side surfaces of the sheet material are generally horizontal. The apparatus for converting the on-edge sheet material feeder to the lying-down sheet material feeder includes a frame having a pair of parallel side sections. A single sheet material feed drum is disposed between and is connected with the side sections. The side sections are connected with side sections of the collator conveyor sheet material feeder.